July 6 / Itron installs modules in Houston

Itron Inc. said it has installed more than 150,000 meter-communication modules in the greater Houston area for the natural gas distribution subsidiary of CenterPoint Energy Inc. The modules use radio transmitting devices attached to CenterPoint Energy's customers' existing natural gas meters, allowing readings from each meter to be collected once a month by a mobile meter reading device mounted to a CenterPoint Energy vehicle. The project will include a total of 1.2 million communication modules and will be completed by 2013.

July 5 / Kendall Yards lawsuit settled

River Front Properties LLC, Union Pacific Railroad, and Metropolitan Mortgage and Securities Co. reached a settlement in an $8 million pollution-cleanup lawsuit at the Kendall Yards development site. Terms of the settlement weren't disclosed. Metropolitan is disbursing money back to creditors that it held back during the litigation, including to people across the Inland Northwest, said Maggie Lyons, the Metropolitan bankruptcy trustee.

July 1 / Airport passenger volume falls

Spokane International Airport reported that during the month of May, 124,221 passengers boarded planes there, a 2.5 percent decrease compared with May 2010's 127,405 passengers. Through the first five months of 2011, the airport has handled 1,186,247 total passengers, a 0.6 percent decrease from 2010's volume. During the month of May, 3,662.8 tons of freight came through the airport, a 9.6 decrease from 4,050.3 tons in the year-earlier month.

June 30 / Avista agrees to buy wind power

Avista Corp., of Spokane, agreed to buy wind-powered energy from First Wind, a Boston-based wind-energy company that's developing the Palouse Wind project in Whitman County. The agreement will provide Avista with 40 average megawatts of renewable energy under a 30-year power-purchase agreement. Washington state's renewable-energy standards say that by 2016, 9 percent of the energy power companies provide must come from renewable resources, and Avista said this purchase is expected to satisfy that requirement.

June 30 / Natural-gas rate reduction OK'd

The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission approved Avista's request to return to natural gas customers the portion of funds it collected for efficiency and conservation rebate and incentive programs but didn't use during the last year. As a result, an average Avista residential natural gas customer using 67 therms a month will see a monthly bill decrease of 2 percent, or a little more than $1. There is no change to the current rebate program for electric customers.

June 28 / $13.6 million Fairchild HQ planned

U.S. Senator Patty Murray, D-Wash., announced that Fairchild Air Force Base will receive $13.6 million to construct a new Wing Command headquarters. The facility will house the headquarters for the active-duty 92nd Air Refueling Wing and the Washington Air National Guard 141st Air Refueling Wing. The funding is included in a military-construction appropriations bill for fiscal year 2012. A total of $27.6 million is included in the budget for Fairchild.

Corrections & Amplifications

Dr. Keith Marton, retired chief medical officer for Providence Health & Services' Washington/Montana region, was named to the Providence Health Care Community Ministry board of directors. His title was reported incorrectly in the Journal's June 30 issue.